The movie ended and was immediately followed by another one, this time about The Tell Tale Heart. Julie thought about asking for the hall pass and getting it over, but she still could not bring herself to actually do it. Part of her knew that she was, again, sticking her head in the sand, but she felt like being stubborn. Sitting down also helped. All she could do was think about Becky and the rest of her friends and what they would say when if they found out she had pooped her pants.

Time passed and the end of the class approached. Julie had a bad feeling that once she stood up, she was going to be in trouble. The bell rang and people headed for the door, eager to get to lunch. Julie stood up and did the same, but with a lot less enthusiasm then everyone else.

Julie knew that Becky was on the other side of the school. Although she rarely used it, Julie’s locker was actually right around the corner from where she was. She decided to head that way. She got to her locker and realized she didn’t even remember the combination. It was written down somewhere in her notebook.

Julie made a decision. Becky wasn’t going to be here for a few minutes. And there wasn’t anything she could really do anyhow. Nobody really seemed to be paying attention. So she let go and gave in to the inevitable. It didn’t take long. Julie kind of zoned out for a moment, but quickly came back and knew what she had to do. She did her best to quickly walk over towards the nurses office. She just hoped that she would get there without running into anyone she knew.

Lucky enough, she was able to do so. She went into the office and turned down Ms. Barnard’s corridor. The chairs outside her door were mercifully empty. Julie forgot to knock and just tried the handle, which of course was locked. She was about to knock when she heard Ms. Barnard’s voice.

“Please take a seat. I’ll be with you in a moment.”

Julie looked at the seats and decided to stand. She just hoped that ‘a moment’ was really fast. She was terrified that somebody else was going to turn down the hallway and head this way. Julie couldn’t tell if it was obvious that she had a loaded diaper on or not, but she didn’t want to have to figure it out.

The good news was that nobody showed up. The bad news was that ‘a moment’ turned into 5 minutes or more. Eventually Julie heard a hand grab the door and turn the handle. Expecting it to be Ms. Barnard opening the door Julie started to head in. In so doing she almost ran into the girl who was trying to walk out.

‘Woah, hey there.” The girl stammered as she took a step back. Julie jumped back herself in surprise.

“Oh my gosh, I’m really sorry.” Julie replied. “I thought….”

The girl looked directly at Julie. A brief awkward second passed and then she smiled and shook her head. “No worries kid.” She waited another moment and then went on, “Excuse me.” She slide out of the door and past Julie and walked down the hallway. Julie watched her go.

The girl was obviously older than her. Probably a senior. She looked vaguely familiar, like Julie had maybe seen her somewhere before, but they definitely didn’t know each other. She had long wavy blond hair and an attractive figure. She wasn’t one of those skinny twig girls. She was tall and had a full figure and she might have been some kind of athlete since Julie saw some kind of wrap on the girls knee. She looked more like a soccer player than say a gymnast.

“Hi Julie.” Mr. Barnard broke her concentration.

For a split second Julie had forgotten about everything. Now it all came back and she all but ran over Ms. Barnard as she came into her office.

Ms. Barnard was her usual polite and relaxed self. After having Julie lay down on the bed, she went into the back room and came out with a new diaper in her hand. Julie had taken her pants off while she was back there, so her diaper was already exposed.

“Hmm, looks like this is a big job.” Ms Barnard stated.

“I’m sorry. I just co…”

Julie was cut off mid-sentence. “Don’t worry Julie, it’s no big deal.” As she was talking Ms. Barnard slid a trash can over towards the bed and grabbed a pair of gloves which were on her hands in no more than a couple of seconds. “I know it’s hard to believe, but there are actually worse things that I have had to deal with the diapers.”

Julie wasn’t squeamish about blood. But she was having a hard time believing what she was hearing. “What could be worse? Do you mean like organs or something?”

“Ha, no. I mean, I hardly have ever dealt with organs, but even in school when I saw them they were no big deal.” She continued to work while she talked and at this point had Julie’s diaper off and into the trash can. She grabbed a number of wipes. “You know what the worst thing I have ever had to deal with? Feet.”

“Feet!?”

“Yea, feet. Sometimes we would get homeless people who would come in, and they had not taken off their shoes in, well, a really long time. Parts of their feet were actually dying, or already dead. After smelling that, nothing really ever has seemed as bad as I once thought.”

Julie didn’t really know what to say.

Ms. Barnard shook her head at the memory and kind of winced. It was obviously she wasn’t making this up. “Anyways, since this isn’t like a sterile area I can actually use some air fresheners and stuff. I actually just got a new candle that I am using and I am a big fan of it. Clean cotton I think they call it.” She nodded in the direction of the sink and Julie saw a small jar that was actually a candle. It was lit.

“Huh, that probably a good idea.” Julie stated. “I mean, I doubt you get a lot of homeless people feet in here, but I can understand why you still would want it. I mean, with people like me and all.”

Ms. Barnard smiled and nodded her head. “Well, you are all clean, let’s just get this diaper on and you will be all set.”

When her pants were back on, Julie thanked Ms. Barnard who laughed a bit and said ‘you’re welcome.’ Julie opened the door (slowly this time) and saw an empty hallway, which she quickly walked down. She paused briefly at the door out of the office and took a deep breath. She hoped nobody who knew her would see her coming out, so she opened the door and snuck out as quickly as she could. The hallway was busy and she didn’t see anyone she knew. She started walking over to where her friends would be eating lunch.

Becky saw her and waved. Julie came up to the group and grabbed a chair. She started grabbing her lunch from her bag and hoped nobody would say anything about her being a bit late.

Becky shot that hope down instantly. “Where have you been? Did your class run late or something?”

Julie was nervous and scared. She wanted to cover her tracks, so she just made something up on the spot. “Uh, yea, we were doing some plant experiment and we were running late. It took forever to set up.”

“Huh, I thought you were the science whiz.” Becky said jokingly.

Julie knew Becky was only joking, but she decided it made sense to make the story even more believable. “Well, I was working with Sandy, and I guess she was having a hard time with the set up or something.”

Becky gave Julie a curious look, but then immediately shrugged it off and dropped the issue. The girls started eating, and then started talking. The rest of lunch went on as it always had. It wasn’t until later that Julie realized the major mistake she made with her little cover story.

In fact, the rest of the day went on much like it always had. Julie quickly forgot about the mini panic attack she had back there in class and her desire to not be in diapers. When her mom was changing her right before bed time, she remembered it briefly but decided not to say anything. Tomorrow was Thursday and that was going to be the end of this whole trying policy anyways, so Julie didn’t really see the point of saying anything. The whole thing at school turned out to not be such a big deal anyhow she told herself. It certainly wasn’t as bad as she had feared it would be. She knew she could easily handle one more day in diapers without any problems.